Ryan Adams : Ron Artest

In the wake of the NBA draft, and the Hawks doing all they can to destroy the franchise, let's compare and contrast the NBA's bad boy with one of my favorite musicians.

Way back in I don't remember, Ryan Adams was doing an unplugged concert in a small club.  There was a drunk guy in the audience who kept screaming for him to play "Summer of 69".  He thought this was funny because it's a Brian Adams song, and Brian sounds a lot like Ryan.  Ryan got so mad that he eventually kicked the guy in the head and jumped off the stage and attacked him.  A few years later, Ron Artest got into a fight during an NBA game, and when a drunk fan dumped a drink on him, Artest went into the stands and attacked the guy creating a media firestorm. 

There is essentially only one real unbreakable rule for any musician/actor/athlete/performer: Don't attack the audience.  Ever. Sounds easy right?  These are the people who pay to see you perform, it's essentially career suicide to attack one of them.  Yet both of these guys did the same thing, and really if you look into their respective industries, they were probably the guys most likely to commit such crimes.  

Ryan Adams is the Ron Artest of singer-songwriters.  They are both incredibly talented and incredibly infuriating individuals.  Ryan Adams at times, seems bound and determined to wreck his career.  After assaulting a concert-goer, Adams told a magazine the inspiration behind his album "Rock N Roll" was "I wanted to get drunk and stoned and play guitar with my band".  In an interview with ESPN just last year, Ron Artest admitted that he used to drink Gin before NBA games, and even at halftime.  Adams has a history of drug and alcohol abuse (the guy was in a band called Whiskeytown for God's sake!).  He told Rolling Stone all about his love of speed balls, booze, cocaine and heroin, then got on his website and said that he was misrepresented and only did speedballs "a few times".  (Hate to say it Ryan, but that still counts)

After "Rock N Roll" Adams began working on his follow up "Love is Hell", the label hated it.  So Adams' left the label, formed his own, and released the record first as 2 EPs, then as 1 entire album (completely screwing over the people who paid for 2 seprate EPs).   In 2005, he released 3 albums in 1 year.  

Finally, he seemed to settle down some when he formed his backing band The Cardinals.  He told AOL music that he no longer wanted to be "Ryan Adams and The Cardinals" he just wanted to be "The Cardinals".  The band helped Ryan put out 4 really strong albums.  (If you haven't noticed by now, Ryan could probably put out a new album every week).  Between that and his marriage to Mandy Moore (one of the all-time weird marriages) it appeared as though he had settled down.  Ryan Adams had found his Lakers, a team willing to put up with his antics and bring out the best in him.  Less than a year after the AOL interview, Adams left the band and just finished heavy metal sci-fi concept record that he is only releasing through his website on vinyl.  (No, I did not make that up.)  These are the highlights of the career of a madman.

Adams carries that same cavalier attitude that Ron Artest brings to the hardwood.  He has an air of "I don't care what you think about me" mixed with an attitude of "I don't care what happens to me".  He's as likely to be arrested for a DUI as he is to win a grammy (or an NBA title).  By the way, the guy writing this, owns 5 Ryan Adams albums.  He's as good a songwritter as there is.  The music is as undeniably good as Artest's defense on the court.  They are so unpredictable, they've entered that weird realm where nothing seems impossible.  Admit it, if Ron Artest became the leader of cult and Ryan Adams became an arsonist, you wouldn't really be that shocked.  They both have their faults in their prospective areas of expertise:  Ryan Adams can write a clunker of a song like no other, and Ron Artest can't shoot a 3 to save his life.  But as crazy and infuriating as these two can be, their both really good at what they do, but wildly unpredictable and possibly self destructive.  That's not always the best combination, but it sure makes for an interesting story.